"Former CIA director James Woolsey called for the release of Jonathan Pollard in a letter to the editor, printed in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, hinting that Pollard’s being Jewish may be a reason he is still behind bars.
“For those hung up for some reason on the fact that he’s an American Jew, pretend he’s a Greek- or Korean- or Filipino-American and free him,” Woolsey wrote." JPOST
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So far as I know Pollard is no longer an American citizen having abjured the US in favor of Israeli citizenship.
Woolsey was a disastrously bad director of CIA. He was quite happy to preside over the destruction of the clandestine service of that organization. He has been a founding member of the ziocon cabal since it was conceived in Senator Scoop Jackson;'s offices. He was among the enthiusasts in the George W. Bush entourage who plotted to get the US to invade Iraq.
Which string is AIPAC pulling this time? pl
Here's an idea. In exchange for Pollard, Israel acknowledges full responsibility for their vicious attack on the USS Liberty; pays full reparations to the the crew, their families and the USG; and forgoes all future military and economic aid from the U.S.
Posted by: The Twisted Genius | 07 July 2012 at 11:06 AM
TTG,
Add to the above: Put James Woolsey in his stead for Life...
Posted by: Will2 | 07 July 2012 at 11:45 AM
I would have thought that if Pollard had been a Greek, Korean or Filopino American that he'd be a mostly forgotten figure left to rot in prison.
If any other country on Earth had had spy like Pollard get caught, would they have had the nerve to accuse the US of wrongdoing by keeping him in prison?
If he gave up his citizenship, then why do they refer to him as an "American Jew"? More guilt to direct our way?
I am so sick of hearing about this guy. I am so sick of us being the sole remaining Superpower of the world who pays for the defense of its many parasitic allies.
Then on top of it, we get to be play the combined role of "Big Daddy/Idiot Child" to the Israeli government.
We can't afford this nonsense anymore, in more ways than one.
Posted by: jerseycityjoan | 07 July 2012 at 03:44 PM
jerseycityjoan
They are hoping thst you will gett tired enough of the pressure that you give him to them. pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 07 July 2012 at 05:23 PM
I am not getting tired in that way, as I suspect you know.
I am getting sick of the people who keep bringing him up and asking for him.
News about Jonathan Pollard is of little interest to most Americans.
I would think the people who pay attention -- and want him to stay where he is -- aren't going to change their minds.
So what's the real purpose of this? Is it getting some of the people in our government who don't care to use their influence to overrule those who do?
There would have been how many victims in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe of Jonathan Pollard? They were our agents and they were betrayed by a so-called American who as I recall has never acknowledged his victims or expressed remorse for what he did to them or to our country.
Traitor. Liar. Murderer by proxy.
God damn him and the ones sticking up for him.
And as a practical matter, our own foreign national informers and agents need to see that we never forget.
Posted by: jerseycityjoan | 07 July 2012 at 05:55 PM
Is there any chance the Russians will ever identify his victims -- those put into prison or killed because of the information he revealed?
Would they ever have realized (at the time or later) what information provided by the Israelis had came from Pollard?
Posted by: jerseycityjoan | 07 July 2012 at 06:01 PM
Did the Israelis ever return the papers he gave them?
Posted by: optimax | 07 July 2012 at 09:07 PM
opyimax
He took the papers to a safe house where they copied them and then he returned him. They did that for months. pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 07 July 2012 at 11:02 PM
Speakin' of spies, Pat, do you buy the Navy's contention that Ariel Weinmann spied for "not" Israel? I think the assertion was that he spied for a "Country X."
Posted by: Mike Martin, Yorktown, VA | 08 July 2012 at 11:04 AM
Mike Martin
I had never heard of Weinmann. I have no idea. As for Pollard/the sheik. they would exchange them. pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 08 July 2012 at 11:23 AM
I can't write about Pollard without including the word 'coffin' in the same sentence. That's the only way he should go to Israel. In a coffin, not breathing, with his nuts removed and stuffed in his mouth. The Israelis must have an awful lot of blackmail on Woolsey and Schultz, et al, or these new-found supporters have dementia. Don't see them screaming for Hanson's release. Not one word ever about any other spy in the entirety of their careers, ever. Google it. Why Pollard?
Read Canadian Columnist and foreign intelligence reporter Eric Margolis' piece in 1999. He says more about the damage Pollard did.
"Jonathan Pollard Was No Jewish Patriot"
by Eric Margolis
The Toronto Sun, Jan. 14, 1999
http://orlingrabbe.com/pollard_em.htm
Posted by: MRW | 08 July 2012 at 02:17 PM
A 10' x 10' cube full of papers.
Posted by: MRW | 08 July 2012 at 02:20 PM
They killed the agent or asset and their families. I was told over 2,000 people died.
Posted by: MRW | 08 July 2012 at 02:21 PM
No.
Posted by: MRW | 08 July 2012 at 02:22 PM
Its heartburn enough that we have UN Ambassador Rice and the other "Masters & Mistresses Of the Universe "-if Mittens gets elected James Woolsey & John Bolton will both be back in Cabinet Level Postions .
Posted by: Alba Etie | 08 July 2012 at 05:51 PM
Pat, Ariel Weinman was a Navy sailor convicted of espionage at a court martial in Norfolk in late 2006. The Navy did a good job of limiting information about the specifications and even the details of the Article 32 hearing.
Here's the Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_Weinmann
Posted by: Mike Martin, Yorktown, VA | 08 July 2012 at 07:59 PM
Mike Martin
I had read the wiki. pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 08 July 2012 at 08:32 PM
MRW,
Thanks for your response.
I have to admit that the more I think about what you said, the less some of it makes sense, to be honest.
Do you really think what you were told is accurate?
I assume you mean by families were killed that people's spouses, parents, children were also executed along with them. That seems extreme to me for the 1980s. Frankly I did not think all would be killed, necessarily, either.
Also if the penalty was so severe and extensively applied, how on Earth could we have ever induced anybody so spy for us? What could the Americans offer that would make the risks worth taking?
Nobody foresaw the end of the Soviet Union, so it wasn't a question of taking huge risks for huge rewards that would quickly pay off. Any rewards I can think of seem very puny indeed, compared to the whole-family execution punishment if caught.
Conditions vs. the West were not good, but the types of people we would have recruited would have been doing OK. Some would have been privileged. They did not see their children go hungry, homeless or sent away to indoctrination camps. How could they have contemplated the deaths of their kids when handing over a stack of maps, codes, pictures, whatever.
Can you say more to clarify what was going on here?
Posted by: jerseycityjoan | 09 July 2012 at 10:35 PM